Google to go after PowerPoint

After striking at Microsoft's Word and Excel with its web-based Google Documents application, which includes word processing and spreadsheets, Google is now about to go after PowerPoint. Indeed, as ComputerWorld reports, Google plans to add presentation software to the Google Documents suite.

ComputerWorld quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt as saying the web-based application will allow users to generate and share presentations, although the citation doesn't specify whether the app will allow users to import and export documents to Microsoft's PowerPoint format. For reference, Google's web-based word processing and spreadsheet apps already allow users to import and export documents to Word and Excel formats, respectively. Of course, Schmidt maintains that Google Documents isn't intended to be a competitor to Microsoft Office. "[Google Docs] does not have all the functional [features] ... of [products] like Microsoft Office," he says. "It seems to be a better fit of how people use the Web. For people who are using products on the Web who need presentation access and sharing ...they are going to use this."